The present invention relates to a communications network system with discrete terminal mobility and remote user registration associated with said mobility.
More specifically, the invention is implemented in a Telecommunication Information Networking Architecture, known as TINA, which is a distributed software architecture for telecommunications defined by an international consortium know as the TINA Consortium.
There are different forms of mobility in a communications system such as terminal mobility and personal mobility. The term mobility relates to the possibility of communication without being restricted to communicating from a fixed point.
Terminal mobility is the capability of a user terminal to be in motion while accessing and utilising the telecommunication services. The terminal has to identify itself by means of a unique terminal identity and independently of the point where it is connected to the network. The network, in turn, has to have the capability to continue locating the terminal while the latter is in motion.
Personal mobility is the capability of a user to initiate or join a service session, and to receive invitations to participate in a service session in different terminals located at various network connection points, based on a unique and personal identifier.
User registration is an inherent characteristic in personal mobility that is employed to indicate to the network in what terminal the user wishes to receive service session invitations based on certain conditions. The user registration can be local or remote with the characteristics that are stated below.
Generally in a communications network, the terminal mobility can be either continuous if the terminal maintains a continuous connection while it moves, or discrete if connectivity with the network is lost insofar as the terminal moves from an access point to the network to another.
On the other hand, in the present methods of user registration within the personal mobility concept in TINA, the user cannot indicate, in the user registration, a remote terminal different from that being utilised at that moment, in other words, it is only possible to carry out local user registration.
The network architecture based on TINA does not support, at present, any type of terminal mobility, and, consequently, does not support discrete terminal mobility either. Consequently, a terminal connected to a network point cannot be disconnected and/or reconnected from/to any network access point.
Likewise, in order that the user can carry out user registrations in a remote manner, it is necessary to support some type of terminal mobility, like for example the discrete terminal mobility (hereinafter referred to as DTM); that is, a registration which permits the user to indicate a terminal different from the one used for carrying out the registration.
The network architecture based on TINA does not support remote user registration either.
At present, there are studies based on the employment of special bridges on Distributed Processing Environment (DPE) based on CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) that TINA proposes as DPE to be used, and a wireless network protocol termed Environment Specific Inter-ORB Protocol.
This option, however, requires changes in the CORBA-based DPE, without said changes being yet defined. Consequently, a solution is not yet available. In addition, said option considers the terminal mobility only in wireless networks and does not support discrete terminal mobility which can also be implemented in fixed networks.
It is therefore a question of conferring discrete terminal mobility (DTM) in the TINA network architecture and granting the possibility of providing remote user registration associated with said mobility.
The communications network system, object of the present invention, offers the possibility of including discrete terminal mobility (DTM) in a network architecture of the TINA type, as well as remote user registration associated with said mobility.
In this way, the terminals that support DTM can be connected and/or disconnected to/from any network access point of a fixed network. This discrete terminal mobility is achieved without having to use a mobility service of DPE based on CORBA, since said DPE service does not presently exist.
With respect to the possibility of remote user registration, the terminal where a user asks to receive a service session invitation has to be a mobile terminal of the DTM type, which is associated with a DTM service subscription in any retailer domain of the network, while the terminal that is used for giving the remote registration order can be fixed or mobile.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the discrete terminal mobility is achieved by incorporating new software components in the communications network architecture. Said components are:
Terminal controller, which is located in the consumer domain and contains information relative to the terminal configuration such as terminal identity, terminal type, mobility type and network address.
Furthermore, the terminal controller serves for maintaining the access interface references for all access sessions opened in a DTM terminal, references that can be updated later if there have been changes during the connection of the terminal, and which are used for closing down the opened sessions.
Moreover, said terminal controller contains the conditions necessary for remote user registration, for example those for admitting or rejecting said remote registration based on certain conditions, like maximum number of remote registrations in a terminal.
Terminal controller front end, which is located in the consumer domain and is necessary only for DTM terminals. Its mission consists of acting as a medium through which a terminal provider can access the terminal controller functions for terminal registration or deregistration, and for handling the conditions for remote user registration and the terminal configuration values.
Terminal mobility manager, which is located in the retailer domain of the network. If said domain supports the DTM service, the terminal mobility manager acts for maintaining a terminal agent instance by representing each DTM terminal registered and with DTM subscription in its domain. In the event that the domain does not support the DTM service, it also acts as an intermediary for locating a DTM terminal in other retailer domains. It creates a terminal agent each time that a terminal carries out a terminal registration.
Terminal agent, which is located in the retailer domain of the network in which the DTM service is available, and serves for providing updated interfaces references in the terminal to the user agent.
These and further features of the present invention are described in more detail hereinbelow as well as in the claims.